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How an international airport found its sea legs
"An artist's impression of Hong Kong's new SkyPier Terminal. Photo by Hong Kong International Airport."
RIVER ferries are not normally linked to international airports but Hong Kong is the exception - and the services are generating considerable traffic.
Seven major cities along China's Pearl River Delta now have high-speed ferry services directly to the airport and since the airport's "temporary” pier was opened six years ago, it has handled more than 8.5 million passengers.
Today it has become a hub for one of the fastest growing ferry services in the world and by the end of the year the temporary facilities will be replaced with a HK$1 billion installation able to handle eight times the traffic.
The new facility will also have an underground, automated rail service to speed ferry passengers on to the airport’s two major air terminals.
According to the airport authority, the so-called SkyPier now provides 72 daily ferry services to and from Shenzhen’s ports of Shekou and Fuyong, Dongguan’s Humen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai’s Jiuzhou and the port of Macau.
Since July a service has also opened to China's new coastal city of Nansha. Airlines have embraced the concept by offering air passenger check-in facilities at all the linked ferry terminals.
